My family is in recovery from a nasty cough. I recall reading somewhere that a toothbrush should be changed after the user gets sick. Toothbrushes harbor bacteria because they are always moist. Germs can spread easily to nearby toothbrushes. (And, gasp, who knows what your virus could have mutated into!) Dutifully, I shopped for new toothbrushes today. I felt excited coming into the bathroom to change the old ones. Such excitement soon turned into scrutiny and later into disgust.
Jeepers! Creepers! There was mold inside our toothbrush holders. (Our toothbrushes are kept in plastic caps that are suctioned on our bathroom mirror.) And why not? After brushing, we keep the toothbrushes in the caps without waiting for them to dry up. (Who has the time to do that, anyway?) It's a breeding haven for molds.
Ok, ok! There were only a few specks of black on the caps. BUT STILL!!! Our toothbrushes stay there more than they stay in our mouths. I wouldn't eat a moldy bread. Why would I put a toothbrush in my mouth that's been a few millimeters away from mold? BLECK!
My husband likes to keep his toothbrush in a case. (A cap that covers only the toothbrush's head isn't secure enough for him.) I checked inside the case, and sure enough, there was mold inside, too!
My parents like to keep their toothbrushes inside a cup. When I checked, there was mold all over the handles, too. YIKES!
Getting overly obsessive, I checked the lid of the cup they use while toothbrushing. You guessed it right. There's mold...on the lid. THE LID! The part that actually touches their mouth. EWWW!
We thought we were protecting our toothbrushes by keeping them enclosed. Yes, we were protected from creepy crawlies. But sadly, we were dumb enough to let mold in. Mold that could and probably already did make us sick.
Well, at least now that I have a new toothbrush, I can use the old one to brush the molds away. You can just imagine how much I scrubbed them away. From now on, these are the things I resolve to do:
1. Check and clean our toothbrush caps often.
2. Change our toothbrushes every three months
3. Not to get too carried away by Stephen King's Dreamcatcher.
It's a story about alien molds.
Enough said!
Jeepers! Creepers! There was mold inside our toothbrush holders. (Our toothbrushes are kept in plastic caps that are suctioned on our bathroom mirror.) And why not? After brushing, we keep the toothbrushes in the caps without waiting for them to dry up. (Who has the time to do that, anyway?) It's a breeding haven for molds.
Ok, ok! There were only a few specks of black on the caps. BUT STILL!!! Our toothbrushes stay there more than they stay in our mouths. I wouldn't eat a moldy bread. Why would I put a toothbrush in my mouth that's been a few millimeters away from mold? BLECK!
My husband likes to keep his toothbrush in a case. (A cap that covers only the toothbrush's head isn't secure enough for him.) I checked inside the case, and sure enough, there was mold inside, too!
My parents like to keep their toothbrushes inside a cup. When I checked, there was mold all over the handles, too. YIKES!
Getting overly obsessive, I checked the lid of the cup they use while toothbrushing. You guessed it right. There's mold...on the lid. THE LID! The part that actually touches their mouth. EWWW!
We thought we were protecting our toothbrushes by keeping them enclosed. Yes, we were protected from creepy crawlies. But sadly, we were dumb enough to let mold in. Mold that could and probably already did make us sick.
Well, at least now that I have a new toothbrush, I can use the old one to brush the molds away. You can just imagine how much I scrubbed them away. From now on, these are the things I resolve to do:
1. Check and clean our toothbrush caps often.
2. Change our toothbrushes every three months
3. Not to get too carried away by Stephen King's Dreamcatcher.
It's a story about alien molds.
Enough said!
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